Companies in the East help bring clean drinking water to Africa

Tomorrow is World Water Day. A time of year when we're all asked to stop and think when we wash our hands or fill the kettle to make a cup of tea.

Water companies like Anglian Water are responsible for making sure we have clean, safe water. But they are also helping to do the same thing across the world with the charity WaterAid.

In an exclusive report, our reporter Claire McGlasson has been to a primary school in Burkina Faso in West Africa that finally has clean water.

For the pupils of Lapara Primary School in Burkina Faso, muddy wells are gradually becoming obsolete.

Now clean water is on tap for the school and the surrounding villages.

It's thanks to companies - like Anglian Water - that have raised money for the charity WaterAid.

Before the boreholes were drilled the people of the village would walk as far as two miles, two or three times a day, to collect water from a lake.

But the lake water is full of hidden dangers.

One of the villagers said: "Before when we drank the water from here it made us sick because it brought us stomach ache."

In a country like Burkina Faso it's a story that's not unusual. Almost a quarter of the country's population don't have access to clean water.

As a result 12,000 children under 5 die from drinking contaminated water each year. Others are killed trying to fetch it.

Sylvain Adenko, headteacher at the school, said: "Before we had water so close to the school we had two problems.

"The first was lots of our pupils getting sick and missing school from drinking unsafe water. The second was most of the time children were arriving late because they had to collect water from very far away before coming to school."

For more information about the charity WaterAid click here.

Click below for an Exclusive report from Claire McGlassen.